Chapter 128 The Pequod Meets the Rachel

[In keeping with his practice of using biblical names,
Melville names the ship Rachel for the mother of
Joseph and Benjamin, heads of two of the twelve tribes of Israel.
It is an appropriate name, for Captain Gardiner of the Rachel had
two sons.]

After we learn of Captain Ahab's
protective actions towards young Pip, we learn the next day just
how hard-hearted and driven a man he is. The whaleship Rachel of
Nantucket bears down on the Pequod. The inevitable question
from Ahab: "Hast seen the White Whale?"

Captain Gardiner, known to Ahab, was
in his boat, ready to board the Pequod. His answer: "Aye,
yesterday. Have ye seen a whaleboat adrift?"

To Gardiner now on board the Pequod:
"'Where was he?---not killed!---not killed!' cried Ahab.
'How was it?'"

It seemed that while three of the
Rachel's boats were chasing whales to windward, Moby
Dick appeared near the ship to leeward, in the opposite
direction. A fourth boat was lowered after him and chased him to
the far horizon where the action could barely be made out by the
man at the mast-head. He thought that the boat had succeeded in
fastening to the Great White Whale -- and then, "a swift gleam of
bubbling white water -- and then nothing."
The presumption was that Moby Dick had towed the whaleboat and
its crew out of sight, as often happens.

It turns out that Captain Gardiner's
twelve-year-old son was in that fourth boat that chased Moby
Dick, and a second son was in another boat. It was growing dark,
and "the wretched father was plunged to the bottom of the
cruellest perplexity; which was only solved for him by the chief
mate's instinctively adopting the ordinary procedure of a
whale-ship in such emergencies, that is, when placed between
jeopardized but divided boats, always pick up the majority first.
It was not till near midnight that the Rachel was able to search
for the fourth boat and the twelve-year-old. Not a trace of it
could be found.

"The story told, Captain Gardiner
immediately went on to reveal his object in boarding the Pequod.
He desired that ship to unite with his own in the search; by
sailing over the sea some four or five miles apart, on parallel
lines, and so sweeping a double horizon, as it were.

"'My boy, my own boy is among
them. For God's sake -- I beg you,' -- Gardiner exclaimed to
Ahab -- 'I will gladly pay for it -- for eight and forty hours
only -- you must, oh, you must, and you shall do this
thing.'"

"Ahab stood like an anvil as Gardiner
was beseeching his poor boon: 'I will not go till you
say aye to me; for you, too, have a boy,
Captain Ahab --- a child of your old age nestling safely at
home.' Gardiner to Ahab's crew: 'Stand by to square the
yards, men!'"

"'Avast!' cried Ahab --
'touch not a rope-yarn. Captain Gardiner, I will not do it.
Even now I lose time. Goodbye, God bless ye, man, and may I
forgive myself, but I must go. Mr. Starbuck, warn off all
strangers, and let the ship sail as before.'"

"Rejected, Captain Gardiner more fell
than stepped into his boat, and returned to his ship. Soon the
two ships diverged. As long as the Rachel was in view, she was
seen to yaw hither and thither, starboard and larboard. But by
her winding, woeful way, you plainly saw that this ship
still remained without comfort. She was Rachel weeping
for her children, because they were not." [Biblical
reference: Rachel or Rahel (ewe) -- Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew
2:18]